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Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible.

  • 6 replies
  • 12 have this problem
  • 1666 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

Cormorant
Cormorant
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This is an endless problem that affects 1000s of users to which there seems to be no cogent solution. I have Windows 7 with this situation. Because I can't access Firefox their troubleshooting schemes are unavailable. I have tried the oft cited ini files procedure with no result. The %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox route brings up the Profile file but disappears when I try to open it. I have two user name accounts on my computer but this issue affects only one of them. As so many others have done I've uninstalled Firefox and then reinstalled it without benefit. Would appreciate intelligible advice on this.

This is an endless problem that affects 1000s of users to which there seems to be no cogent solution. I have Windows 7 with this situation. Because I can't access Firefox their troubleshooting schemes are unavailable. I have tried the oft cited ini files procedure with no result. The %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox route brings up the Profile file but disappears when I try to open it. I have two user name accounts on my computer but this issue affects only one of them. As so many others have done I've uninstalled Firefox and then reinstalled it without benefit. Would appreciate intelligible advice on this.

All Replies (6)

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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Do you still have a default profile and is the profile that is marked as "Default=1" in the profiles.ini file still present?

Try to delete the profiles.ini file to force Firefox to create a new profiles.ini file and a new default profile.

You can also try to rename the Mozilla\Firefox folder or move this folder to another location.

  • C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\

You may have security software that is preventing Firefox from creating a profiles.ini file.

Try to boot the computer in Windows Safe Mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

Cormorant
Cormorant Question owner
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Have decided to be content with Internet Explorer.

cor-el
cor-el
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Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?

Cormorant
Cormorant Question owner
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Titanium Internet security and Windows firewall w/advanced security.

Cormorant
Cormorant Question owner
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When I click on "profiles" the link disappears so I don't if there is a default=1. The "profiles.ini" brings up text that begins {General} Start with last Profile=1 name=default-(followed by a series of numbers and several lines of stuff that I won't repeat here).

cor-el
cor-el
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There is usually one profile section that has a Defaults=1 line and this profile is used when you start Firefox normally.

Did you check if all profile paths listed in the file still exist in the Profiles folder?

Try to use the Profile Manager to start Firefox with one of the registered profiles.
Check the date/time stamps to see which profile is the most recent if you have more than one.